Islanders' Anthony Duclair and Patrick Roy have cleared the air after 'miscommunication'

Looking back, both sides admit there was miscommunication.

Islanders coach Patrick Roy deeply regrets calling out Anthony Duclair for “godawful” play late last season, prompting the mercurial wing to ask for a leave of absence. And Duclair knows he should have articulated better how much his skating was compromised after an injury five games into the season that “tore my groin right off the bone.”

Roy went to Montreal during the offseason to apologize in person to Duclair and both said on Monday at Glen Oaks Country Club in Old Westbury prior to the team’s annual charity golf outing that the matter was well behind them.

“He drove to Montreal, which I really appreciated,” Duclair said. “He apologized for his comments. I told him I didn’t need an apology. I just need him to know I was playing hurt.”

The event, which serves as the unofficial kickoff to the Islanders’ season, raised approximately $700,000 to benefit the organization’s Children’s Foundation.

Training camp opens on Thursday and Duclair, who compiled just seven goals and four assists in 44 games after signing a four-year, $14 million contract to be a top-six forward, said his focus is “Game 1 of the regular season and being ready for that. I’m going to take all the time that’s needed during training camp.”

“I expressed to him my regrets,” said Roy, whose relationship with Duclair dates to the latter’s junior hockey career. “But, it’s an emotional game and, sometimes, you’re saying things. But the outcome didn’t do anything good for us. I feel like it almost was negative more than anything else. I think Anthony had a lot of trust in me and I felt like I let him down a little bit there.

“But it’s behind me now and I want to move forward to this year and really hope that Anthony will start like he did because he had a really good start.”

Duclair had two goals and an assist before getting injured.

He said his frustration was with the injury never healing the way he thought it would.

“The timeline given to me was four to six weeks,” Duclair said. “It was a little tough. Three-and-a-half weeks, I didn’t have a groin, it was still not connected to the bone. I just feel like I came back too early. It hindered me the rest of the season, basically playing on one leg. As a player, you don’t want to be on the sidelines, you want to be playing. That’s what I tried to do. Obviously, it wasn’t good for anyone for me to be out there.

“I think it was just a miscommunication by everybody. Myself included.”

Notes & quotes: Roy said he plans to start Maxim Shabanov, the KHL standout entering his first NHL season, on Bo Horvat’s top line along with free-agent signee Jonathan Drouin to begin training camp while moving Mathew Barzal back to center in between Anders Lee and Kyle Palmieri . . . Barzal, who missed the final 31 games and needed surgery after a puck struck his right kneecap on Feb. 1, said he is fully healed. “Mentally, it’s just doing whatever it takes to get back to being the player I was,” Barzal said . . . Horvat said he was “good to go” after suffering an ankle injury while playing for Team Canada in the World Championships in May . . . Roy said goalie Semyon Varlamov, who missed the final 57 games and needed knee surgery in December, is skating. But Roy deferred to general manager Mathieu Darche when asked whether Varlamov would be ready to start camp.

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.